Durability
by Ray The Red
Summary: He bore them with pride, each telling a distinct story. They were marks of his survival, medals of the flesh. Yet they were also the reminders of his mistakes and failures. Most of all though, they reminded him of his humanity.


The First of Many

_"Because nobody goes through life without a scar."_

_- Caroll Burnett_

**November 06, 2022**

I spoke the words that only a 1,000 had spoken before, and that 9,999 others were uttering alongside me at this very moment; "Link Start!"

The ceiling of my room, along with the lamp that hung from it disappeared from my view as it was taken over by white. Then the checks came, as the guide had explained. The Nerve Gear in that sense was like a suit tailor; it made you a virtual suit that fits your unique senses the best. After all, every human receives the intel of the world a little different, and so it would be for this digital world.

Once that was done I logged in and the game truly opened. As the title disappeared, I found myself standing within a blue room, in front of a mirror.

Reflected back at me was a slightly tanned, narrow and square face. It had a long nose and grey eyes. On the side of it were ears, which were neither huge nor noticeably small, and easily visible as the brown hair was quite short and spikey. The body that supported it wasn't too muscular, some muscles from swimming but that was it. Height-wise it didn't have too much to offer either, standing at 1.73 meters. All in all, the reflection of Blake Walker, a 17-year-old High School student, was quite average.

In this world though, I wouldn't be known by the name Blake Walker and therefore I would not wear his face. The options that hung suspended in the air next to the mirror, and the name slot that hung above it, granted me the opportunity of a new identity.

The options were vast, so I immediately got to work. The eyes stayed the same, I always liked them and so had the girls I've dated. The face, however, became broader and thus manlier. The nose became slightly shorter, and I decided to add a three o' clock shadow as well. My skin color kept that slight tan, since my relatives in the USA were quite jealous of it.

For the height the change wasn't too big either, just a few centimeters making my avatar stand at a nice 1.80 meters. Muscles weren't expanded exponentially, but instead of slightly visible they became prominent. I was now the proud owner of a six-pack.

The hair is probably what I spent the longest on, exhausting all the options twice. Eventually I decide on a ponytail of red hair that reached my shoulder blades.

They even had an option for voice, and I made mine more gravelly. When you go for a tougher image, you got to speak tougher.

As for clothes the only choice you had was the color of the shirt and the gloves, I made both red to match the hair. That was that, and when I looked into the mirror once more, it is not Blake Walker who looked back, but another person entirely.

Somebody who looks like they came out of an anime, and not just anybody from that anime either but the protagonist.

Yet, I felt like the avatar wasn't complete. Something vital was missing, and after a second I knew exactly what.

This was an RPG with no magic, all players use weapons. Weapons leave damage, scars. Therefore the protagonist in a world of weapon masters needs to have one.

Besides, if they had all these options regarding shoe and nose sizes, they sure as hell had to have an option for the marring of the skin, like a tattoo or a scar. I searched for quite a while, but I couldn't seem to find it. Just as was about to give up I remembered that maybe it wasn't a character building option as much as a mode of playing. I went to settings and sure enough, there I found it; under the tab _Damage Absorption_ stood the option _Durability Mode_.

"Damage whilst healed, is not nullified" is the description it gave, and exactly what I was looking for. I clicked it, and saw the check appear in the empty box.

Happy to have sorted that out I looked back to the mirror, and at my avatar. He was now complete, the only thing he lacked being a name.

I thought of many names, each more complicated than the next; some were Japanese, references to long dead warrior that I'd memorized for history tests or clever combinations of Kanji; others were in English, most of these being mythical in nature, but I discarded them all.

The one that survived the guillotine was basic and simplistic, but in that simplicity lay its power. In this world I would be known as Ray. As I clicked on _okay_ the monicker "Ray the Red" flickered through my mind and I smirked. I could definitely get used to that.

The light cleared, and the chime-like sound that had accompanied me disappeared as well. I stood in a grand round plaza of cobblestones, at the center of which stood a clock tower, whilst small stands with ware could be found at the edge of the giant plaza. It was already filled with people, each as extravagant and exotic as me, and there was an almost constant chime of new people teleporting in.

This is where everyone starts, the tutorial town which goes by the name _Starting City._ I was simply stunned by the beauty and realism of it all; from the hustle bustle of the people, the feeling of the cobblestone's beneath my feet, to the fresh air and the smell of food it seemed to be carrying. _Starting City_, had this rustic feel to it and I was loving it.

I explored the place and soon enough I was going from NPC to NPC, who were easy enough to make out amongst the mob of players who all wore the same kind of garb. The yellow cursors that hung above their heads made the distinguishing even easier.

Each NPC gave you some kind of tip on what to do or where to go. Eventually I ended up in a weapon shop, and it is here that I made one of the most vital decisions of my life. The choices here were of course quite basic, it was after all the starting point. In the end I went for a one-handed sword, and when I placed it on my hip I truly felt like a knight.

After some more exploring I found myself on the plains, a large expanse of grass with flowers popping up every so often with the sky in the background. Amongst the sea of green you could see the occasional dabble of purple. These dabs being the grazing _Frenzy Boar, _ big brutish things. They're territorial critters, easy to piss off and move surprisingly fast for their big size.

My first fight was me mostly dodging, and scratching it's HP down slowly. I think it took half an hour for that thing to break into the polygons it was made of. I was covered in sweat by the end of it, but damn if I didn't feel accomplished.

The next one was a bit tougher, and it gave me my first experience in what being hit in a virtual world is like; namely not that different from real life. Except that you don't really lose your breath here, not needing to breath and all.

After having killed two more in that fashion, my health bar had dwindled down to a dangerous 30% and the marginal EXP I'd gained in return was in no way compensation. I took a well-deserved break, during which I used one of the two Weak Health potions I'd had in my beginners inventory.

It didn't taste good, but I hadn't expected it to. Potions here worked a little different too, instead of returning the health immediately they only increased the speed at which your health recovered. So I slowly saw the bar go from red back to green.

I was quite miffed, because all the Boars had a pure red marker hanging above them, indicating that they were the same level as me. That meant they were level 1, and yet it had taken me this long to take them down.

It was during my grumbling that I saw another person kill a Boar with a glowing strike. It made me realize that I'd up till now I'd been doing it all wrong. I'd completely forgotten all about the _Sword Skills, _which the store owner had been babbling about; "This blade allows you to do a _Horizontal _andisn't that just something you want to do, my friend? You can real easily, it only costs 15 Coll!"

I sighed and muttered: " Well, that explains why I've been getting my ass handed to me by level 1 monsters."

After having regained my strength, my health now standing at a respectable 75%, I set out to learn how to do this _Horizontal._ It took me about twenty minutes to figure out which stance it recognized, and what it felt like when it activated, but eventually I got the hang of it.

You didn't need to force the strike, that was too human. No, you had to let the System guide you; had to conform to the binary code that made the move possible.

The feeling of it taking over was unlike any other. It was a charge, energy that wasn't human in any way. The closest I could come was adrenaline, and for all I knew that's what the Nerve Gear made your brain excrete.

In any case it turned out there were two simple beginners hits that my blade could carry out and I wanted to try both of them. I figured the second one out when I accidentally came in the territory of a Boar whilst practicing.

Up until that point there'd never been enough distance for the things to make a full charged sprint at me, allowing them to activate their own little skill. Their skill being skewering you with their tusks. I didn't see the Boar at first, but you sure as hell hear it when it's coming at you full speed.

So there I stood; legs wide, and sword in the air above my head as I looked to the right, heart beating a mile a minute and my eyes and mouth gaping wide. I must have looked like a real food. It was now two meters away from me, and I was panicking alright because it's red eyes were not friendly in the least.

It was one meter away from me when I felt the rush of the system taking over for me. I lifted my left leg in the air, pivoted on my right, and brought my left foot down whilst simultaneously slashing my blade diagonally to the right; cutting it in its side. I don't think I've ever loved technology as much as I did at that moment.

This boar gave me more than just a marginal amound of EXP, it dropped one of it's tusks. Looking at it in my inventory, I found out that it had three uses. The first was that you could craft the simplest and weakest of arrow heads out of them; the second was crafting a necklace out of them; the third, and in my opinon the most useful, was that they were used as an ingredient in Potinos. Except the rest of the ingredients were uknown to me; I'd have to get behind that, making your own potions wasn't a bad idea at all.

After that scare I went back to the city to see if I could do anything interesting with the small amount of money I'd gained. Turned out I couldn't do much more than buying food, Weak Health Potions, or rent the cheapest of rooms.

I spent some money on food, which was what I was most interested in as well as the cheapest. I bought some bread, it was kind of stale and the taste was bland, but considering it was made up of code, it was probably the most special thing I'd eaten in recent times.

As I wandered the streets, searching for anything that resembled an apothacary, I saw people talking to each other and it was the first time I realized that I didn't actually know if anyone in my social circle had also acquired the game.

Tourism, whilst fun was much more fun in a group. I decided that tomorrow I'd ask everyone I knew, aside from the traitor, if they had this technological marvel.

I certainly hoped so, and seeing as I knew a few avid gamers, it was quite likely. All I needed to do was find out their avatar name, and we could go on our merry way; a ragtag group traversing this new world.

For now though I was done with being a tourist, because really that moniker I'd thought up wasn't going to appear by itself; it was time to grind.

Walking on those grassy plains, and fighting every once in a while was the most free I'd ever felt. Yes, at that moment I didn't need friends.

Under that endless sky, wielding my blade, I truly felt I could do anything in this world; I felt indestructible.

It was a feeling that would sadly not last.

* * *

The sun had begun it's decent, and the time in the right corner of my vision said it was around 5:20. I was just sitting on a hill, feeling the soft breeze and the movement of the grass as it swayed along with it, looking at the vibrant colors that streaked across the sky. It was a view that I'd never quite seen, not like this.

Tokyo's skyline might be one hell of sight to see, certainly at night, but it didn't have this tranquil beauty. Besides, after 17 years of living there you get kind of used it. All those lights, noises and people; at some point it just ceases to be all that amazing.

This was new and the closest I'd ever gotten to this in the real world was at the house of my Uncle back in the States, in a suburban neighborhood. At the time I'd thought the fields that surrounded his neighrborhood had been big, but they'd easily fit in this expanse more than twenty times.

It was mind-blowing to think about the fact that this was all computer code, even me. At that very moment I solely consisted of my thoughts, Polygons and was defined by stats.

Right as I was looking at the pink clouds, trying to see if the power of imagination had any effect on the game whatsoever, I was ripped from my tranquil environment and transported back to the plaza where I'd started out.

I wasn't the only one.

The whole plaza was filled with people, all as confused as me. Some still stood in their battle stances, swords raised whilst others were sitting like me. Confused murmurs came from all around me.

I myself had appeared next to a bear of a man, standing half a head taller than me and twice as broad. He had a black hair done in a top not, big slanted eyebrows and a shaggy beard attached to his very square jaw. His eyes were beady and black and his nose was as sharp as could be. A mallet hung on his back, and his shirt was a vibrant yellow. Intimidating was what this guy had gone for, and he had certainly succeeded.

I knew it was an illusion and was not as intimidated as would have been had this been back in the real world.

" So, do you know what's going on?" I asked in my chosen gravelly voice.

The man looked down at me," No, not a clue." he rumbled back.

Before I could reply with a " I see", the sky turned blood red with warning signs. Then the sky bled, and from all that blood (for what else could it be) turned into a robe. A giant, empty GM styled robe.

It was all quite theatrical and intimidating. I might have felt grand on the fields around this city and I might not have felt intimidated by the man next to me, but in front of that eerie monstrosity you couldn't help but feel small.

The being spoke, and the more words that came out of the empty void that was within the robe, the faster my heart began to beat. The Thump-thump of the blood rushing through my ears at an accerelated pace cancelled out some of the words, but I registered it anyways.

Death. This was a game of death and 213 had already paid the ultimate price. I couldn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it. He had to be lying, he just had to!

But as he continued speaking, it became quite clear that he wasn't.

He was speaking in the polite form, and yet is was the bluntest use of the Japanese language I'd ever heard someone use. This Kayaba, the man that all gamers admired and honored, stated all of these horrors with no affliction at all.

All of it was delivered indifferently, as if reading out statistics of a company, or listing all the ailments a patient had. It was too damn clinical, and that's why it had such an impact on us all, much more than if he had spoken rudely and menacingly. Because at the end of the day, the man came over as if bored out of his skull.

His gift, his mirror exposed us all for who we truly were; there was no escapism to be found within this game. As the Kayaba had put it: "I will show you evidence that this is the only reality."

I no longer stood at 1.80, and I no longer felt hair in my neck. Ray the Red with his 3 o' clock shadow and 6-pack was no longer, and I was once more Blake Walker, the 17 year old American who'd lived his whole life in Tokyo.

The giant on my right next to me was no longer there either, instead there stood a gangly teenager. He was still be taller than me, but he no longer towered over me. No longer did he have a grand beard, a strong jaw and bulging muscles. Now he had a long face, a small mustache situated under a round nose and slanted eyes that were a lighter color than they had been a moment ago. Silky black hair that reached his shoulders, and no muscles to brag about.

A Gamer trough and trough, and he looked a stricken as I felt.

The façade that was our avatar had given us a false sense of power, of security. He had ripped that away, the polygons that had taken the form of imagination reshaped into the forms we had tried to escape. The weight of his words had finally and truly dawned on us.

This _was_ real.

The last words the creator of this world spoke before disappearing back from whence he came were: " Now, I have finished the Tutorial for _Sword Art Online _Player- I wish you luck."

Silence reigned for a few minutes, all of us too shocked to do anything. but then a scream pierced it and chaos reigned supreme. Shouts of anger, desperation and cries of sadness filled the plaza. The NPC's looked on in confusion, wondering why we were doing what we were doing. I looked at the gamer, he had sunken to the ground, looking up at the sky in utter disbelief. On my left a girl was bawling her eyes out.

The shock that had kept me still and silent up till now turned into something else altogether; it turned into a righteous fury. I felt the anger bubble inside of me, and I growled.

I wanted to hit. I wanted to hurt, I wanted to hurt something bad like never before, and so I stormed off, pushing the people out of my way. They didn't resist, most of them still stuck in stupor and really it was good they hadn't. I don't know how well that would have ended.

Once out of the main plaza I started running, already unsheathing my weapon. My breathing was heavy, steam of all the fury inside of me. I ran onto the green sea, and I ran towards the first beast I saw. The boar didn't stand a chance.

With a mighty roar I unleashed a _Slant _upon it, and it disintegrated. The sound of breaking glass was music to my ears; and the primal fury that now coursed through me craved for more.

I complied.

Screams of rage, squeals and the sound of breaking glass were what filled the silence of the field. I don't know how long I was at it, but eventually I began to tire. My arms were starting to feel like lead, and so were my legs yet I kept going. At some point I must have entered a different part of the plains, because my next opponent was a different creature.

It was not a _Frenzy Boar_, whose attack pattern I had completely memorized, but it was a _Wolf, _and that threw me off. I was still angry though, and the fury that I had become only wanted to hear the tinkling sound of death. I attacked head on, no plan except to inflict harm upon it.

Turned out it was smarter as well as faster than the boars, because it dodged.

It was the first time that had happened, and in that moment I learned the downside of _Sword Skills;_ the cooling down time. I was still in the last phase of the skill when it attacked. I could not dodge it, for the binary code had me in its grip.

Maw open wide, sharp teeth reflecting some of the left over light of the sun, it bit down on my left arm.

Hard. I felt it tear through flesh and bone, and I screamed.

Not a second later I felt the binary code let me go and I slashed the beast accros face with my sword. It let go with a yelp, and jumped back a few feet.

It narrowed its yellow eyes, and snarled at me. The bar that hung above it showed that it had about 60% of its health left. Seemed like it's face was its weak spot, because that was the most damage I'd done without a _Sword Skill_ all day.

I snarled right back, the anger and adrenaline keeping me going through the pain. The red haze that had clouded my mind had lifted, the painful throbbing of my left arm a sharp reminder that I needed to play this smart. My eyes flicked to my own health bar, it stood 5% higher than my opponent's.

That meant we were on almost equal ground, and I liked those odds; it meant that I could get through this.

My breathing was labored, more so than it had been, and the pain was distracting, but I forced myself to focus on the _Wolf._ It was regarding me with the same intensity. Unconsciously I started to move, and it followed suit; soon enough we were circling each other.

While my body was moving slowly, my brain a big jumble of speeded up thoughts.

I knew that it was faster and more nimble than the boars. I didn't know what it's skill was, but I was betting it was the biting. I had two options and my best bet seemed to be a _Horizontal,_ as it covered the most distance. The problem with the move, as was with all my moves at the current moment, was that they were straight forward. It had already shown that it could easily dodge the very move I was intending to use.

Suddenly there was a fierce burning sensation in my arm and I flinched, turning my sight on my arm. The sight that met me was a real shock; the bite marks were still there. One of them was closed, a white circle on my slightly tanned skin. The others were still open, and out of them leaked a red liquid. I watched in horror, mesmerized, as a red drop made a trail down my arm and finally fell off my wrist. In small flash the drop turned into t a polygon.

The beast noticed my distraction and immediately took action. It knocked me to the ground. In the corner of my vision I saw my bar drop to a light red, 55% of my health gone. That wasn't the biggest thing on my mind at the current moment though. It wasn't the chilling image of my arm bleeding either.

No, what I was concerned with was the fact that the _Wolf _was standing on top of my chest and that its teeth had gained a slight glow to them. He was going to bite me, he was going to kill me! I started trashing, but the wolf stood its ground, not moving from its spot upon my chest.

They were gleaming, all of them looking sharper than before and he struck. I was still thrashing, and that movement was what probably saved my life. Instead of biting my neck, it was my shoulder. I screamed, and in desperation I stabbed my sword right into its side with all my might.

I felt the fur brush my hands, felt the warmth of its breath and the pain as it's muzzle tore through my shoulder. I heard the bone snap, and felt the skin and tendons tear. I forced the sword even deeper, but it wasn't enough and as a result I was going to die, I was sure of it; I was going to be number 214.

Iconic moments of my life flashed before my eyes.

I saw my father, slightly greying hair slicked back and the glasses in front of his focused grey eyes. He was wearing his immaculate suit, with a newspaper in hand as he drank his coffee; his morning and evening ritual. It had been what had given me an in interest in Journalism and he's supported that dream, even indulging me with many a mock interview as kid.

I saw my mother's round face, blue eyes bright and dimples in full effect as always: when humming whilst watering the plants; when playing with me on the beach; when cooking with my first real girlfriend. I remember her trying to copy the bento's that Hikari, the afore mentioned girlfriend, sometimes made for me; it didn't go too well.

I heard much laughter as my best friends push me into the pool, the water balloon fight a month later is my revenge. The staff hadn't exactly liked that little stunt, further cementing our status as part of the most rambunctious lot for most of our middle school years. The three of us were as thick as thieves, telling each other everything.

I saw the girl who recently broke my heart kissing my best friend, starting the biggest fight me and Aichiro have ever had. I smiled bitterly at the thought that that would never get resolved.

As these images passed in front of my retina I waited for a white light to engulf me, for me to turn into the code this body consists of. I waited for the tinkling sound that signifies death in this world.

It arrived, but not in the way I had imagined.

The growls that had been right next to my ear disappeared, replaced by the sound of breaking polygons; the great weight on my chest was gone, and so was the body my sword had been stuck in. This game was completely accurate when it concerned anatomy and through pure luck I'd stuck it's heart.

Looking at my HP bar I saw the numbers 25/250, the bar next to them being the same dark red as the blood that was splashed on my shoulder. On my torso lay a slab of meat as well as some fur. The words -Level Up!- flashed above my health bar, but I barely registered that because I couldn't tear my eyes away from the items.

I started to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

It started out slow, but soon enough I was cackling hysterically. The laughter didn't last long though; the fury and euphoria were both gone and all that I was left with was pain and the crushing weight of this new reality.

All the fear, pain and confusion that the fury had been pushing down took over and I cried. I cried because I might never see my family and friends again; I cried because I was so close to dying; I cried because I'd never felt as terrible and alone as I did then.

Whilst hot salty tears streamed down my face, the wounds were closing excruciatingly slow, with a hot burning sensation as if the System were putting both salt and alcohol on them. With shaking hands I opened up my menu and used my last _Weak Health Potion. _It didn't put a stop to the pain, but it did speed up the healing.

I don't know how long I lay there, all I know is that the sun was no longer in the sky. With each star that appeared the pain lessoned, and eventually all I felt was a dull throb.

I raised my arm and looked at it. White circles, each about the size of my thumb, cover my lower arm on both sides. With puffy, red eyes I looked at them like they held the answers that the white circles in the sky didn't. I look down to my shoulder, and see a large patch of white skin that clashes with my natural tan.

Ray the Red, warrior extraordinaire was the one who should have be wearing them and not me, Blake Walker. Yet there I was, wearing scars given to me by a wolf. As I continued to look at them, anger once again made itself master of me.

How dare this world change how I looked when it had already taken away so much! I had somewhat come to terms that I was stuck within this virtual reality, it was simply undeniable at this point, but I would not let it control my being any more than it already did.

This was my identity, damn it!

With angry movements I navigated through the menu to where I should have been able to change the mode of playing. Should have, because the tab that should have said _Damage Absorption _was that just like the logging out button; blank.

I could still change the sound stats, for example to kill the sound of when I received a message, and I could still adjust to when my alarm clock went off but I could no longer access the mode of playing.

Sliding my gaze back up to the cosmos and looked for the constellations that my Uncle had taught me oh so long ago. They were not there, driving home the point that I was truly in a different world all together, with no hints to back home.

It was under the light of these strange stars I realized that these scars were just the first of many.

* * *

**AN: **Well, this is an Idea that I've had for a long while, but one that hasn't spoken to me for over a year. SAO abridged is what revived it, and for that I'm glad. So go watch it, it's hilarious.

An important thing to know about this little story is that whist it does take place within Canon, this is not Kirito's or Asuna's story. They exist, but they won't be seen for quite a while, of that I'm quite certain. Aside from that though I have no concrete idea of where this will go. That's always the most fun about writing, it brings you to places you didn't even consider at first.

Anyhow, I don't expect to many views for this first chapter, but hey one can hope right?

Cheers,

Ray the Red


End file.
